The first mass offered in Twin Falls, Idaho was in a little house by Fr. E. Verbrugge, Pastor of St. Peter’s church in Shoshone on November 7, 1904. Monthly mass was offered thereafter using this home and others. Fr. Verbrugge expressed the desire for a real church and the Pioneers of Twin Falls made this wish a reality. The Twin Falls Canal Company donated land on the corner of 2ndAvenue East. The men of the parish built the church while the women collected funds to defray expenses. The small wooden church was completed in August 1905. On the Feast of St. Edward the Confessor the church was dedicated by Bishop Alphonse J. Glorieux, Bishop of the Diocese of Boise. This small church was the house of worship until 1921. The congregation was growing in Twin Falls and a new church was needed. Property was acquired on the corner of 6th Avenue East and 2nd Street East. Ground breaking took place in June of 1920. On June 28, 1921 Bishop Daniel Mary Gorman, 2nd Bishop of the Diocese of Boise dedicated the new church of St. Edward the Confessor. The new church was built at the cost of $83,000 with a seating capacity of 600.
St. Edward's continued to be a vibrant community, being pastored by some great pioneer priests like Msgr. Remi Keyser and Msgr. Joseph O' Toole. Fr. Perry Dodds was the first parishioner to be ordained (1958) and celebrated his first mass in his home parish of St Edward’s.
In 1960 the Church interior was painted, marble Altars, chandeliers, tabernacle, and new flooring was installed. Four years later the Parish Hall was built on the corner of 7thAvenue East and 2ndStreet East. New additions to the church in 1972 were the Mosaics of the Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Guadalupe.
At the directions of the Diocese of Boise in 1990 the parishes of St. Edward’s and Our Lady of Guadalupe began working together to become one parish. Fr. Ernest Anderson was assigned as co-pastor with Fr. Robb Keller. Currently, Our Lady of Guadalupe is used as a chapel and place for parish meetings and retreats.
Parishioner Patricia Santos Marcantonio has written a book, On Holy Ground that details the History, Art and Faith of St. Edward the Confessor that was published in 2003.
St. Edward the Confessor Parish and St. Edward's Catholic Continue to grow and prosper with a vibrant Catholic community, still operating in the same historic district in the heart of dowtown Twin Falls. In 2019, St. Edward's School committed to advance into Middle school education, of which a new modular set of classrooms was installed in the Fall of 2020.
Built in 1921, Earnest H. Gates (architect); 1960, altar remodel, Charles Hummel; Consecrated by Bishop Gorman, June 28, 1921.
"Bishop Glorieux has witnessed the birth of many a city in Idaho, but he declared that he neversaw one of its age equal to Twin Falls. He expressed his unbounded astonishment at the marvelous progress and his admiration for the citizens on the tract. The Bishop stated taht he would arrange to have a priest stationed in this city as soon as possible. He greatly admired the Catholic church in Twin Falls, which he said would be a credit to many a larger city."
- Twin Falls News, Oct. 20, 1905
"St. Edward's Catholic Church ... is a late example and one of the finest in Idaho, of Renaissance Revival architecture. Its twin towers ... their belvederes surfaced with light terra cotta, catch the low light of morning and evening in a distinctly North Italian manner."
- Patricia Wright in Twin Falls County--Idaho Architecture
"The exterior of the building is worked out in red tapestry brick and the cream terra cotta in a free Romanesque style partaking of enough renaissance detail to give grace and lightness to the design."
- Ernest Gates, Architect
"I well remember these days 38 or 39 years ago. This country was a howling wilderness, and as I sat on the banks ofthe Snake River one Sunday, the 3rd of May, in 1883, a couple of companions who had just arrived from Ireland were sitting with me. One of them began to pray. He put his hand in his pocket and brought out a little prayer book. He pitched it across to me, sitting on a rock and said, 'Purcell, read the Gospel for us, or we will forget there is a God in this d*** country. It seemed like the last place God had made... Look at it today. The whole wilderness blooms like a rose."
- Fr. Thomas Purcell, Sermon for Dedication of St. Edward's